[tititita]

Hello,
I wish to move to the UK around London probably Greenwich.
I wish to open hair salon from my home ,i will be a graduate from
Vidal Sasson and will offer great cut and color with a good value
I am a French,English ,Italian speaker so can be a good thing for
my clientes.
How would you feel about it as i am thinking of doing that but wish to know
what you have to say.
My hairdresser in Switzerland does the same from her house and is super busy.
Thank You

 

[Joppa]

Hello,
I wish to move to the UK around London probably Greenwich.
I wish to open hair salon from my home ,i will be a graduate from
Vidal Sasson and will offer great cut and color with a good value
I am a French,English ,Italian speaker so can be a good thing for
my clientes.
How would you feel about it as i am thinking of doing that but wish to know
what you have to say.
My hairdresser in Switzerland does the same from her house and is super busy.

First, about some red tape. If you rent a property, most landlords insist you don't run a business from it. If you decide to buy and want to run a business from home that involves members of the public visiting your premises, you will need a change of use permission from the local council's planning department. You will also have to meet any health and safety regulations, plus appropriate public liability insurance cover. You will also have to register as self-employed with the tax office (HMRC), and usually pay tax on account twice a year and make an annual tax return. If your turnover is more than £73,000, you have to register for VAT and charge 20% on any service you provide. You may also be liable for business rates (tax) for using part of your home for business, as well as council tax for the rest. There is no state qualification or registration to work as hairdresser in UK.

Secondly, about business prospect. All I can say is there will be a lot of competition, both from commercial salons (there is one in every street!) and other 'mobile' hairdressers. It will be quite an effort to build up a client base that will provoide you with year-round income and pay all the bills. Your reputation and skills, and how much you charge, are all part of the equation. Clearly you cannot charge as much as commercial salons, but you need to charge a reasonable price to get a decent return. If you employ staff, that will add to the cost.

Thirdly, about location. While Greenwich is a fine residential area, if you want to have access to greatest number of potential clients, you want to be somewhere within Zone 1 or 2 of the tube network. The downside of course is housing costs may be higher, in some cases much higher. It will help if you are near tube station and can offer offstreet parking, and outside the congestion zone (costs £10 a day to drive in).

 

[tititita]

First, about some red tape. If you rent a property, most landlords insist you don't run a business from it. If you decide to buy and want to run a business from home that involves members of the public visiting your premises, you will need a change of use permission from the local council's planning department. You will also have to meet any health and safety regulations, plus appropriate public liability insurance cover. You will also have to register as self-employed with the tax office (HMRC), and usually pay tax on account twice a year and make an annual tax return. If your turnover is more than £73,000, you have to register for VAT and charge 20% on any service you provide. You may also be liable for business rates (tax) for using part of your home for business, as well as council tax for the rest. There is no state qualification or registration to work as hairdresser in UK.

Secondly, about business prospect. All I can say is there will be a lot of competition, both from commercial salons (there is one in every street!) and other 'mobile' hairdressers. It will be quite an effort to build up a client base that will provoide you with year-round income and pay all the bills. Your reputation and skills, and how much you charge, are all part of the equation. Clearly you cannot charge as much as commercial salons, but you need to charge a reasonable price to get a decent return. If you employ staff, that will add to the cost.

Thirdly, about location. While Greenwich is a fine residential area, if you want to have access to greatest number of potential clients, you want to be somewhere within Zone 1 or 2 of the tube network. The downside of course is housing costs may be higher, in some cases much higher. It will help if you are near tube station and can offer offstreet parking, and outside the congestion zone (costs £10 a day to drive in).

Thank you for all your advices,
of course i will ask the landlord and pay tax and check with health and safety i am not the kind that do things the wrong way.
I was thinking of going mobile and call also go to peoples house on top of doing it from home,of course there is a lot of talented peoples ,and i will start but if i have a good training and offer great services and pamper my clientes i don t think i will take a big risk doing it,everyone started one day right also doing it from home cut the expenses and if worst come to worst i do not need to rent my shop ,so it is a safe start.
I do also think we might move closer to London so to get more clientes,i know been an expat myself i would love to be able to go to someone who can provide a good service in my mother tongue.
Thank you again

 

[Joanne_Manchester]

Thank you for all your advices,
of course i will ask the landlord and pay tax and check with health and safety i am not the kind that do things the wrong way.
I was thinking of going mobile and call also go to peoples house on top of doing it from home,of course there is a lot of talented peoples ,and i will start but if i have a good training and offer great services and pamper my clientes i don t think i will take a big risk doing it,everyone started one day right also doing it from home cut the expenses and if worst come to worst i do not need to rent my shop ,so it is a safe start.
I do also think we might move closer to London so to get more clientes,i know been an expat myself i would love to be able to go to someone who can provide a good service in my mother tongue.
Thank you again

I agree with Joppa, it is unlikely that you will be able to do business from a rental accommodation even if you owned the flat/house it would be difficult to get approval for this (from the council as neighbours would not be likely to approve of people constantly going to your home).
You do not necessarily have to rent a shop , you could start by just renting a chair in an existing Hairdresser. Personally I would not go to a person's house unless it was a friend or someone I knew already... How would you advertise for this? (Potential issues in letting any "strangers" coming in your home)...but good luck with what ever you decide !!

 

[tititita]

I agree with Joppa, it is unlikely that you will be able to do business from a rental accommodation even if you owned the flat/house it would be difficult to get approval for this (from the council as neighbours would not be likely to approve of people constantly going to your home).
You do not necessarily have to rent a shop , you could start by just renting a chair in an existing Hairdresser. Personally I would not go to a person's house unless it was a friend or someone I knew already... How would you advertise for this? (Potential issues in letting any "strangers" coming in your home)...but good luck with what ever you decide !!

Joanne,
thank you for your advices ,yes i was thinking also to rent a chair
at a hair salon,at least peoples come in and someone can see the result
wehn you are working with a cliente.
Maybe my hairdresser have it good here in Switzerland,she did introduce herself on a expat forum and built it from there,she is so busy that she will open her salon,but what might work here might not work in the UK.
It is hard to know until you are there.
I will check on renting chair,i didn t know you could do that in the UK i know yes in the US it is popular.
Thank You
have a good day.